WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria: Georges Brassens originally and anarchist (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Despite being considered one of the greatest French and international

singer-songwriters; although his name is found in the Pantheon of
transalpine poets, Georges Brassens remains almost unknown in Italy,
except, obviously, for the niches of enthusiasts. ---- It's true, in our
country he performed only once, in '58, yet he had illustrious
translators, the best known of whom was Fabrizio De André. But with him,
and even more than him, we must include Fausto Amodei, Nanni Svampa (in
Italian but above all in Milanese), Beppe Chierici, who still, despite
his venerable age, produces songs of ours in an almost faithful Italian
edition, and many others. But even in this case, with the exception of
Faber, they are still niche artists. It should be added, moreover, that
in the case of De André, his translations of songs which have become
well known in Italy such as Il gorilla, Nell'acqua della chiara Fontana,
Le passanti, Morire per delle idee, Delitto di Paese, Marcia nuziale, do
not they automatically led to the discovery of the true author; on
several occasions the unaware listener thought, on the contrary, that
the French edition was a translation from the Italian original.

Even from a literary point of view, more than a dozen books have been
published about the chansonnier over the years, some with all the lyrics
to his songs.

Fresh off the press is a volume published by La Fiaccola di Ragusa which
describes two little-known aspects of Georges Brassens: being of Italian
origins and being an anarchist. The author is Isabelle Felici, professor
at the Italian studies department of the Paul Valery University of
Montpellier.

Regarding Brassens' Italian origins, on his mother's side, the
information in this regard was incomplete and generic until recently;
saying that his mother was "Neapolitan" (he said so too) everyone
thought that the city of origin was Naples. In reality, "Neapolitans"
for the French were all Southern Italians. The true origin of Elvira
Dragosa's family was the small town of Marsico Nuovo, in Basilicata,
from which her parents left in 1880 to land in Sète, a port
Mediterranean of the Occitan region of Herault. This may be a minor
detail, but in reality it allows us to have a precise understanding of
how much that origin may have influenced ours in terms of musical
tastes: tarantellas and other motifs from the deep South which we then
find in many of his songs, assimilated in that family atmosphere in
which, especially the mother, sang from morning to night, and not only
the most famous and, indeed, Neapolitan melodies, such as Santa Lucia or
O sole mio brought around by Enrico Caruso but taken up by many
non-Italian singers, including the Corsican Tino Rossi, a real star in
France in the twenties and thirties.

The author analyzes in detail the connections between Italian and
southern music and Brassens' songs, and, through rigorous research in
the sea of works dedicated to the singer-songwriter, which have
multiplied in 2021, the centenary of his birth, also among the episodes
of his childhood and adolescence and the lyrics of many of his compositions.

For lovers of Uncle Georges a real discovery.

To the other aspect, certainly more well-known, the political one,
Felici dedicates a passionate second part, first going through the
personal events of our man, who moved to Paris in the early 1940s, then
was interned in a labor camp in Germany, then a fugitive and clandestine
in the very poor home of two friends, Jeanne and Marcel, where he will
live long after the end of the war and the beginning of his brilliant
career as an artist. It is in the immediate post-war years in which
Brassens had the opportunity to pour his strongly anti-authoritarian,
proudly anti-militarist and anticlerical, proudly anti-cop energies into
the anarchist environment, first by frequenting his neighborhood club,
then the editorial staff of the weekly Federation Anarchiste "Le
Libertaire", therefore becoming proofreader and editorial secretary.
There were several months of intense journalistic work in which he
alternated the writing of biting and ironic articles with the commitment
of editor of the weekly. After his decision to move away from that
tiring work, threatened by a political struggle within the federation,
Brassens has never abandoned his anarchist ideas, and has always
demonstrated closeness to his fellow thinkers, especially by performing
at the numerous solidarity galas organized both for the self-financing
of the press and in aid of the Spanish comrades active in the
clandestine fight against Francoism, or to help political prisoners.

The book is a mine of news, revelations, anecdotes, quotes, often
unpublished (almost entirely for the Italian public). A journey through
the songs and vicissitudes of one of the greatest transalpine
singer-songwriters of all time.

The volume also contains a very rich bibliographical section, many
illustrations, and an appendix with writings by and about Georges
Brassens, from which I like to quote some passages from his first
article published in "Le Libertarie" of 28 June 1946:

As soon as an individual has formally demonstrated, by A plus B, that he
is absolutely not suitable for being a bricklayer, a painter, a
tinsmith, a chestnut seller or a strangler of rich old women, without
making a fuss, we make every effort to do so. join the police.

There is only one requirement: total imbecility; but be careful, it is
mandatory that the candidate has it and provides it when making the
request. Otherwise, he will have a lot of trouble, getting recommended,
no one will open the door for him because the recruiters are
incorruptible... Incorruptible, but not infallible. It is worth
admitting that they sometimes allow themselves to be deceived by a
simulated dullness, by a mask of stupidity; in short, they let an almost
intelligent guy join their ranks. But this catastrophe happens so rarely
that it is not worth worrying about. Moreover, after a few weeks of
close contact with the police, the simulator's dullness not only managed
to equal that of his dear colleagues, but also surpassed it...
To reach perfection, he only remains to become a liar, false,
hypocritical, cowardly and brutal; which will certainly happen thanks to
some small investigations and some beatings given to drunkards and tramps.

These policemen are not men, but tools, utensils, shovels, brooms, which
work obediently in the hands of any active police commissioner.

Strong huh?

Pippo Gurrieri

Isabelle Felici. A Brassens on the margins. Brassens of Italian origin
and anarchist. La Torch, Libertarian Library n. 29, Ragusa 2023, 112
pages, 12 euros.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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